Iron Man 3 loses Andy Lau. The Chinese actor Andy Lau was up for a supporting part, playing a Chinese businessman who is friendly with Tony Stark. We assumed that Lau’s character would also be the catalyst to get Tony Stark to China and fulfill the deal of the Chinese co-production that’s making the movie possible.

Chen Daoming(“Hero“) and Wu Xiubo (Chinese TV drama “Before The Dawn“) are apparently the top contenders to replace Lau, but it seems nothing is final at the moment. It’s a bit of a loss for the film that has amassed a pretty solid ensemble including Ben Kingsley, Guy Pearce, Rebecca Hall, James Badge Dale, William Sadler, Ashley Hamilton, Don Cheadle and Gwenyth Paltrow and likely would’ve been Lau’s biggest North American/worldwide exposure to date.

The Iron Man 3 production won’t move to China until later this summer, so there’s still time for Lau’s replacement to be found.